Copplestone looked at him steadily.
"The matter," he said evenly, "is that Miss Manderson has been murdered."
Monsieur Dupont uttered an extraordinary exclamation. He was instantly galvanized into a condition of seething energy. With what was almost a snarl, he brushed the financier aside, and reached the white mangled form on the ground.
For a tense minute he knelt beside it. The others waited.
"Destroyed," they heard him mutter—"utterly destroyed...."
When he rose, his eyes were full of tears.
"It is terrible. Who was with her last?"
"I was with her less than a quarter of an hour ago," Tranter replied. "She said she was going back to the house, and asked me to find Mr. Copplestone, and tell him that she was not feeling well."
"Where are your police?" asked Monsieur Dupont.
"Gluckstein is going to take the ladies back to the house, and telephone for them," the manager returned.